What a day!!
Well for starters, I got up really late, by about 10 a.m. or so late. Missed breakfast, but didn't mind. They've been feeding me well since my stay began, a little over a week, a week tomorrow at the orphanage. Wow! It's hard to believe where the time went. So why did I sleep late you might ask..? Simple, I was up most of the night planning my first Bible/English lesson. And inspiration hit me and I kept going over material until I had a well constructed plan as to what I should be teaching. Victor gave me a lot of material to go through, and the one thing that popped up was this course on the book of Luke. It's more to get people thinking and to "plant seeds," as Victor later explained it to me. Generally it is simplistic by nature in it's teaching, while at the same time striking on the main points of the gospel, leading us into Jesus, His ministry, life, death, and resurrection. The lessons' are about a page or so long with vocabulary word's and questions that reiterate what is being taught on the page(s). I figure that at least if I had some kids who knew some basic English speech and/or reading skills I might be able to squeak by. And as it was, didn't happen as such....

I was able to get three teenagers, two girls and a young man. The one, who I'll just call "L", was nice enough to get the other two together on this. She, "L", was able to read one page very competently. Unfortunately, the other two had trouble following along. We did two lessons, which in reality wasn't a great loss after all. I gave them miniature note pads and pens to write down the vocabulary words that were in the lessons. They did well with that, though Victor was going to get me a English-Latvian/ Latvian-English dictionary to borrow or send one via e-mail. This would be good so then they can start to associate things that I know that once they see the definition can take more fully from the lesson itself. The first lesson was really short and simple. I read it out loud though I could see the perplexed look on the other two students. "L" was so graciously kind to translate what she did know and we went from there. We read everything through and it was hard for me to find things that they could connect to the story line, metaphors, because I'm so used to linking things in our own American/English way. They liked it even though it was slow going.

Now I have something to bounce off of. I didn't going in expecting much, but this was an invaluable piece of learning for me. I will have another week to get things prepared for the next lesson(s). Hopefully I'll have Victor's dictionary and find somethings, if my online service permits, more things I can grab to ad to what needs to be taught. I want to teach more English to keep there interest up, especially the lad. They're interested, which is more than enough I could ask for. I was going to have more lessons to teach, originally, for Sunday, but I don't want to over kill the experience for them and loose them all together. So I told them that we will start where we left of next Saturday. That also means I'll have to get more Latvian under my belt, too. And as a bonus I plan to give them all something, whether it be the three, or more, students so they will hang in with the course. Actually I hope I can get them to hang in by just wanting to learn the Word and the English language.

Oh! Forgot about this, too. Victor says there's going to be some kind of conference in, I think, Estonia in the first weekend in October. I said I would go with Agra, and some others from our Church of Christ in Riga to the event. So I will miss a day or two of lessons. Maybe I can come up with homework or a project for them to work on, something fun, that really doesn't need a lot of skill, just some thought and minimal time. I don't know if Victor is going or not, but at least I'll get to see some of our crew. Everybody else is away or studying which is why I may not see as many people as I would have liked to this time round. Getting there should be fun... They'll putt me on a train, I believe to Riga, where I'll meet Agra and all and travel together to the conference. I'll be there for about two days or so. Wow!! Exciting... exciting!!!!!

I honestly believe we learn by not just our triumphs, but more so by our trials and errors. It is when we don't try that nothing is ventured nor conquered. So far this trip, though been sick for part of it, has been such a case... a learning experience.

My brothers and sisters and family in Christ, I want to thank you again for this unique and rare opportunity you've bestowed upon me to do the Lord's work for being a "Fisher of men..." It is for more than grown adults, it's about our future... being a "Fisher of children" who need to know they have an unwavering Father in heaven who loves them unconditionally no matter what's happened to them or where they are from or who they are. To this I say Arlabunakti ( good night!)!

In Him
Peace be with you all
God bless